The 2018 Guide to Manuscript Publishers features book publishers that accept submissions directly from writers. No agent or previous publishing experience is required. Featured in the book this year, in addition to the publisher reviews, is a guide to the manuscript submission process, as well as a glossary of common publishing terms.
This is the book’s fourth edition. This year, like last year and the year before, I saw an increase of traditional publishers starting a vanity imprint. Although I must say that the increase was less dramatic this year. This trend seems to be cooling. Still I must emphasize that I am only reviewing the traditional publishing arm of any company and not the vanity-publishing arm. I do not recommend working with a vanity publisher.
The book is divided into the following categories: non-fiction publishers, literary fiction publishers, multi-genre publishers, science fiction and fantasy publishers, mystery publishers, children and young-adult book publishers, Christian publishers, and romance publishers.
When reading this guide, it is important to know that every publisher that we review must meet a number of standards.
All of the publishers must be open to any author regardless of their nationality and country of residence. Unfortunately, this eliminates a number of quality Canadian and Australian publishers.
All of the publishers must be traditional publishers, which means that they must pay their writers for their work. It also means that they must never charge their writers anything to publish their books. This eliminates all vanity publishers including companies that claim to be traditional publishers but charge their writers extra for cover design, editing, or other services. If a publisher tries to make you pay them, they are a vanity publisher.
All of the publishers we review must be open to submissions without an agent at some point in the year. It is not that we don’t like agents, some are great, some are not. There are definitely pros and cons to having an agent, and we leave that decision up to you.
All the publishing companies we review are open to agented submissions as well. Although a number of publishers—particularly in the science fiction genre—prefer that you do not have one.
Emily Harstone
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About the Author
Emily Harstone is the pen name of an author who supports the popular weekly email 'Authors Publish' magazine, which features publishers, writing advice, prompts, and more. Visit www.authorspublish.com to subscribe for free and 'like' on Facebook at www.facebook.com/emilyharstone
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